Admittedly, Jackson Merrill doesn’t like sitting still.

That makes him especially difficult to watch Padres games with, as was his girlfriend’s lot in life the last week while he was recovering from his concussion while his teammates played up Interstate 5 freeway at Dodger Stadium.

“My girlfriend hates watching baseball with me,” the 22-year-old Merrill said Sunday morning. “Like, it’s so much easier to watch a baseball game on TV and know what’s going to happen. Like, what pitch is coming. It’s easier to read … but I’m sitting there and she’s just like, ‘Stop it, stop it; you’re stressing me out.’

“That’s just how I am. I’m wired that way.”

Wired to be playing, that is. Merrill was activated from the concussion list after progressing through one last workout before Sunday’s game. Merrill was struck in the face by a Diamondbacks infielder’s glove on June 14; he hadn’t played since.

“It was a slow week overall,” Merrill said. “It started slow and got progressively better. But I think after the team came back and I spent a day around people, it got me more in the mindset and mood to get going. Just kind of just being chill all week, it’s not good for me. I like to be active all the time.

“So slow was tough, but I’m back and ready to go and good energy all around.”

Merrill wasted no time getting into Sunday’s game, jumping on Seth Lugo’s first-pitch sinker in the first inning and driving it to center fielder Kyle Isbel on a 105 mph line, some 373 feet from the plate.

He grounded out in his next at-bat in the fourth inning, doubled to start the two-run rally in the seventh. Merrill also hit a 99 mph ball that carried Royals rookie Jac Caglianone, a converted first baseman, to the right-field. He jumped and robbed Merrill of a home run.

All Merrill could do was tip his helmet as he walked off the field, which brought a fair amount of ribbing from locker mate Gavin Sheets after the game.

Merrill knows something about learning how to play the outfield on the fly, so he stood his ground.

“It’s crazy that I’m the 22-year-old and I’m teaching (Sheets) how to be professional,” Merrill said with a laugh.

He added: “(Caglianone) is a bigger kid. He’s got a big body, a big frame. So it’s a little different him (transitioning) to the outfield from first base than it was for me from shortstop. And he’s learning right field, which is one of the harder ones. So props to him.”

Lessons learned

Before Merrill’s return from the seven-day concussion list on Sunday, Sheets had played eight straight games in left field.

The regular action there, not to mention tireless pregame work with coach David Macias, allowed Sheets to escape a play off the left-field wall without incident on Saturday.

That’s no small matter.

Sheets lost his glove over the wall going back on a ball last month and came away with another run-in with the wall earlier this month nursing various ailments to his head, hip, wrist and thumb.

The takeaway: Reckless abandon is not the way to survive a season.

With that in mind, Sheets jumped for Bobby Witt Jr.’s eighth-inning double on Saturday as he reached the warning track but was in position to play the ball off the wall instead of running straight into it.

The ball hit 113 mph off Witt’s bat, so the carom still shot past Sheets.

It’s all part of getting more and more familiar with a spot he’d started at eight times before this season.

“I think just a more educated attack,” Sheets said. “I’ve been putting in a ton of work with Macias so that I can be out there every day and be comfortable and play it at a good level. Obviously, that ball was like 113 and so you kind of just give it your bid, but you don’t be reckless. I think that’s the biggest thing. Once I saw that I wasn’t going to get to it unless maybe if I jumped … and then you just keep your distance.

“It’s just working a lot of balls like that, getting familiar.”

Sheets was back at designated hitter on Sunday as Tyler Wade got the start in left. The Padres’ decision to designate Jason Heyward for assignment means Sheets will likely continue to rotate between DH, first base and left field.

Marketing 101

Luis Arraez sidled up to Jose Iglesias as the hero of Sunday’s game spoke with the reporters crowded around his locker.

Arraez, who singled in the ninth inning and ultimately scored the game-winning run, was hoping his teammate would feel his presence.

When Iglesias did, Arraez smiled and said, “OMG, man,” a callback to the 2024 Mets rallying cry that was derived from the hit song that Iglesias performs in his other life as Latin Pop artist Candelita.

Is OMG headed to Petco Park?

Iglesias smiled at the question: “We have a new single coming June 27. I’m excited about that one, too.”

Notable

• RHP Robert Suarez’s appeal of a three-game suspension for hitting Shohei Ohtani with a pitch will be heard Monday. The Padres are hoping to reduce the number of games, rather than outright escape discipline for hitting the Dodgers’ DH on Thursday in Los Angeles. The Padres will have to play with a 25-man roster and a 12-man pitching staff for however long Suarez is suspended, as he cannot be replaced on the roster during that time.
• Padres manager Mike Shildt said he’d been mulling moving Merrill to the No. 2 spot in the lineup and Arraez to the four-hole before his center fielder hit the concussion list. It was Arraez’s first time batting cleanup for the Padres and the 24th start in his career in that spot. Said Shildt: “He knows how to drive in runs and just frees up the top for Jackson and Tati to go ball out and have Luis sitting there ready to use his magic wand.”
• OF Brandon Lockridge was optioned to Triple-A El Paso to make room for Merrill returning from the concussion list. Lockridge, however, may not report immediately. El Paso is off on Monday and Lockridge and his wife are expecting their first child on Thursday.
• RHP Logan Gillaspie (oblique) threw two scoreless innings in a rehab appearance with El Paso on Saturday.